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Last City
The Last City appears in the Death Cure film. It is seemingly the last major settlement of humanity following the Sun Flares and the subsequent Flare Pandemic. The actual location of this megapolis is unknown. The city serves as the primary headquarters of WCKD and is its main base of operations from which it coordinates its efforts in obtaining immune children for the production of a cure. The Last City's equivalent in the original book series is Denver. The film portrayal differs greatly from the books in many respects. History On the assumption that the Last City is directly based from that of the source material, the city was originally known as Denver, capital of the U.S. state of Colorado, but in truth, not much is known about the Last City prior to the Sun Flares. The city was likely a prosperous metropolis up until the impact of the solar storm. Denver would survive the cataclysmic event, albeit with its infrastructure severely damaged. It is also possible that the city was constructed after the sun flares by either the Post-Flares Coalition or WCKD itself. The theory is increasingly plausible due to its many deviations from pre-sun-flare cities. Aside from theories, the Last City's general history remains a collection of esoterica. Basing off of the theory that the city existed before the sun-flares, the Post-Flares Coalition – and later WCKD – took over administrative control of the city, constituting major construction efforts in the downtown area of the city, including several skyscrapers (most of which, including the buildings known as "Portside" and "YKS Megacorp" are presumed to be privately owned by corporate bodies) as well as WCKD's primary headquarters and research facility. When the Flare Virus Pandemic began, quarantine checkpoints were established on road networks leading to the city to ensure that the virus did not enter the city. Mandatory curfews were enforced and access to the city became much more restricted. Three months before the events of The Death Cure (film) WCKD's Director of Operations, Ava Paige, ordered the construction of a vast array of defences in and around the city – including the large wall seen above – to seal off the civilized downtown area from the contaminated remains of the outer-city. To the dismay of both the safe zone's urbanite inhabitants to the desperate wastelanders alike, Paige deemed the addition as a "temporary precaution" against the increasing threat of infection from the outside. Up until roughly a month before the events of The Death Cure, entry to the city was permitted albeit heavily monitored. This, along with the complete cut-off from the safety and supplies provided by WCKD from outside the wall, began fostering tensions from the lawless survivors of the outer-city to WCKD – to the extent where safe zone residents were tagged as careless to the rapidly increasing issues faced outside the city wall. In the final month prior to the City's social collapse, the people living and working in the city had begun to lose faith in WCKD's efforts in finding a cure, along with the excessively strict law to which they had been subjected. In a monthly progress report to WCKD's Board of Directors, Doctor Ava Paige had revealed to them that Subject A7 - Minho, displayed the highest and most promising antibodies to the Flare seen thus far, the BoD unanimously expressed their newfound doubts to what appeared to be just another pipe-dream for a cure. They also expressed their own thoughts about instead protecting people from the threat instead of attempting to fight it and initially rejected Paige's request to initiate a new round of trials on the infected using the antibodies projected from subject A7. Faith was somewhat restored after Teresa Agnes convinced them that a breakthrough to a cure was closer than ever, and were convinced to begin human trials. While initially promising, even reversing the symptoms in an infected patient, the serum produced from Minho ultimately proved to be a disastrous failure. The serum to which the patient had been exposed to initially relieved her of the symptoms showcased by the virus, providing the false hope that the subject may recover to scientists caring her; however, a mere six hours thereafter it was discovered that the virus had still proliferated inside the victim with full-force, with the serum simply shielding the obvious symptoms usually experienced from view. A mere one night later, the city was besieged by an army led by Lawrence and the Right Arm. Due to Gally placing a hacking device into the City's network, Lawrence was able to disable the City's security systems along the walls. This allowed him to launch an attack on the walls by driving a truck filled with high explosives into it, breaching the walls at the cost of his life, but allowing his army to enter. Very quickly the city turned into a war zone as mobs militant anarchists clashed with WCKD's Zone Control. While having better equipment and presumably being better trained and coordinated, the mob of ensuing wastelanders had vastly greater numbers. Slowly and steadily, WCKD security forces were pushed back as the City was consumed in the chaos. Government The Last City was administratively governed by WCKD, headed by the Board of Directors, with the Director of Operations, Dr. Ava Paige, providing the most influence unto their decisions. The city is protected and patrolled by WCKD's "Zone Control" division, mainly overseen by Ava's Assistant Director of Operations, WCKD's Zone Control act as the City's full law enforcement, like an evolved CDC. Their duties are highly varied from patrolling the streets, enforcing city curfew, removing any infected civilians and guarding the wall. Category:Places